Zoning commission will update plan for area surrounding Westminster

The Carroll County Planning and Zoning Commission decided yesterday to update the comprehensive plan for the area surrounding Westminster, a plan that was last reviewed 13 years ago.

The decision means that members of the commission will meet with residents of the area and members of the city planning commission to review the Westminster and Environs Comprehensive Plan of 1985.

The meeting is expected to be held in February. It typically takes about 18 months to update a comprehensive plan, said Barbara C. Moser, the county's comprehensive planner.

"We need to look at several issues," Moser said. "During the first meeting, we'll be doing a lot of brainstorming. We need to decide what our priorities will be."

The Westminster and Environs Comprehensive Plan was adopted jointly by the city of Westminster and Carroll County on March 7, 1985. The community planning area it addressed consisted of 16,148 acres and encompassed the corporate limits of the city and the area that surrounds Westminster.

The review ordered by the planning commission yesterday would focus solely on the area around the corporate limits.

"The plan is outdated," Moser said, after reminding the commission that Westminster updated its comprehensive plan in June. "We need to take a look at economic development, transportation, land-use issues, and public facilities and services the environs."

The City of Westminster Comprehensive Plan 1998, the first in 13 years, resulted from more than a year's work.